Elephants and Bamboo Rafts

One of the first things we did when we arrived in Chiang Mai, Thailand was to arrange a day trek of elephants, bamboo rafting and hill tribes.

It was a drizzly day with a light but cooling rain spraying us as we moved about. Our first stop was at an elephant training centre.

We were told we could buy a bag of bananas and sugar cane to feed and make friends with our elephant for 20 baht ($0.66). Looking at the size of the bag, we thought for sure one bag would last us the entire trip (30 minutes). But then we quickly remembered just how big elephants are and how small bananas are.

Our elephant, named Orangatang (or something like that) ate our bag of bananas like Rosie O'Donnell would eat at a free smorgasboard of M&Ms and Oreo cookies. He'd put his trunk over his head and leave it there, snotting over us with his breath.

We'd give him one or two bananas at at time but came back as soon as he could feed the tiny, over ripe morcel into his enormous mouth. Fortunately, there were four "banana shops" conveniently located along the path with just the right amount of bananas and sugar canes stuffed into a plastic bag, also for sale for 20 Baht.

Orangatang, the elephant slash banana-poop maker, ate through five bags of food.

If we ran out, he'd just leave his trunk on his head. After a while, I figured out that if I slap the top of his head, he'll take his trunk away.

Our elephant was the leader. Clearly bigger than everyone else's, but Ron and Yvette's elephant was the proud and slow moving mother of Lucy, the four month old baby who desperately tried to keep up with mom's big steps.

As you can see, all the elephants were trained get their free meals.

After a slow tromp through a well beaten path in the forest, we visited a hill tribe called the Hmong ('H' is silent). And what a disappointment that was. No one was around until they heard us coming, then about three of them waddled down to their posts and began to benignly carve, wittle, or stitch some ornamental junk that would surely be thrust into my face later on in Bangkok, preceded by "Hey mister! You want scarf?"

Gee thanks. It's a million degrees out but I could use an extra layer of warmth.

We got out of there relatively quickly and moved to our bamboo white water rafting adventure. Our guide told us that this trip normally lasts an hour but due to the fact that the rainy season has come two weeks early, the water is so high and fast, that it would only be 20 minutes long!

When we saw the rafts, I think we all collectively shit our pants. About 20 feet long, and maybe four feet wide, we were told to sit directly on the bamboo. Cold and oh-so comfy!

As soon as we hit the first set of rapids, we realized that we were in no danger of tipping into the churning and silt filled river because the rafts were so long and disappointingly slow moving.

Despite the slow movement, Debbie still screamed her head off as we went through it all. I tried my best to yell back to her that she really needed to keep her mouth closed.

It was over in a flash and we were cold, wet and filthy but it was a great day.

The photo to the left is my "bird's eye view" of our river guide. You can see how wide and comfy it is.